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Copyright, 1920, by 
The Atlantic Monthly Press 



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Co-r^f r Design and Sketches by 
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Vm from BOSTON 

Scenes from the Living Past 
Illustrated by Picture and Story 



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Tie ATLANTIC MONTHLY PRESS 
BOSTON 



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OSTON LIGHT, on Beacon, or Little Brewster, Island at ^ 
the entrance to Boston Harbor, has many associations with ^ 
historic persons and events. The very name of the island on which 
it stands connects it with Elder William Brewster, of Plymouth 
fame. On this island, in i 7 i 6, the first lighthouse on the whole 4 
American coast was built. Before the Revolution the building suf- 
fered much from fire and lightning; then it suffered still more at the 
hands of men, both British and American. During the Siege of 
Boston there were two lively fights for its possession. But the Brit- 
ish had the last word at this juncture, for their final act in the evac- 
uation of Boston, as one of their ships sailed out of the harbor, was 
to blow up the lighthouse. Since 1783, when the present structure 
was built, it has been from time to time enlarged and modernized. 
The American who keeps turning up in every corner of our 
eighteenth century history is Benjamin Franklin, and with Boston 
Light he had his characteristic contact. The first keeper of the 
light was one George Worthylake, an experienced waterman who 
owned a farm on Lovell's Island. On Monday, November 3, 
. 171 8, while he was attempting to bring his wife and daughter to 

t - town in a small boat, all th'ree were drowned. They were buried 
at Copp's Hill. Franklin, twelve years old at the time, and re- 
cently apprenticed to his brother James, a printer, seized the oc- 
casion to write a ballad, **The Lighthouse Tragedy," which, 
with another, he sold in broadsides on the Boston streets. 
T **This flattered my vanity," he wrote in his Autobiography ^ 

**but my father discouraged me by ridiculing my performances 
and telling me verse-makers were generally beggars." His early 
biographer, the inventive Weems, declared that later Franklin be- 
came so mortified with these ballads ** that he could not bear the 
sight of them, but constantly threw into the fire every copy that 
fell in his way." Apparently none escaped, and the race of "col- 
lectors' ' has been cruelly thwarted. 



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HEM DROWNE was a famous coppersmith in his day. One 
piece of his handiwork conspicuously survives in the weather- 
vane surmounting the belfry of Faneuil Hall. This building was 
not a * 'cradle of liberty," but a headquarters of trade, when Peter 
Faneuil built it in 1742. That emblem of nimbleness, the grass- 
hopper, had stood before as an emblem of trade, in the vane of the 
Royal Exchange of London, from which the suggestion of the 
Faneuil Hall vane is said, in one version of its origin, to have been 
taken. In another, the fact that a grasshopper was the bringer of 
good fortune to Shem Drowne as a boy is related. 

Deacon Drowne wrought this grasshopper with as much care as 
if it were to be scrutinized at close range. Once when it had to 
be mended, a page of writing was found within it, addressed **To 
my Brethren and Fellow Grasshoppers," recording its erection by 
Shem Drowne, May 25, 1742, its repair by its maker (**my old 
master above"), after it ** fell in y«= year 1753 Nov. 18 early in 
y^ morning by a great earthquake," and ending as follows: 

** Again like to have met with my Utter Ruin by Fire /but hop- 
ping Timely from my Public Scituation / Came of with Broken 
bones and much Bruised / Cured and fixed / old Master's Son 
Thomas Drowne June 28th 1768 /and Though I will promise 
to /Discharge my Office, yet I shall vary as y^ Wind." 

As late as 1886, James Russell Lowell wrote in one of his let- 
ters of **the gallery of Funnle Hall (they call \i fan-you-well 
now)." Further testimony to the old pronunciation of the word 
is borne by a rough inscription at the foot of the slab on Peter 
Faneuil's tomb, in the Granary Burying Ground. It was presum- 
ably made by a workman who wished to identify the stone, and 
seems to read, **P. Funnel." Of the **Fun" there is no doubt. 
The surviving Bostonians who use this pronunciation are as rare 
as those who still call Wollaston and Braintree *'Woolston" and 
*'Brantrey," and rarer than those who continue to give to Brom- 
field the sound of **Broomfield." 



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CHRIST CHURCH, at the North End, now commonly 
called the **01d North Church," the earlier name of a 
meeting-house destroyed for firewood by British soldiers during the 
Siege of Boston, has other distinctions besides the belfry in which 
were hung the signal lanterns that started Paul Revere on his 
resounding ride. Among these is the unique possession of four 
cherubim — or statuettes of trumpeters, so designated — once cap- 
tured by privateers. In the lack of definite legend to explain why 
they were called cherubim, it may be suggested that they are com- 
panions to the seraphim who ** continually do cry" in the organ 
and choir loft, on the four corners of which the trumpeters stand. 
These little figures are a strange relic of the French and Indian 
War. They were intended for a French Canadian church on the 
St. Lawrence. Their lodgment in the oldest place of worship now 
standing in Boston — the church was built in 1723 — is explained 
on a tablet in the church, which reads as follows: **In memory 
of/ Thomas James Gruchy/ Junior Warden of this Church/ and 
^ Merchant adventurer from Jersey/ who in parlous times as/ Captain 
J^ of the Privateer Queen of Hungary/ took from a French ship in the 
^ year 1 746/ the four figures of cherubim now in front/ of the organ." 
^ This memorial is by no means the only reminder of the mari- 

^ time background which made Christ Church typical of Eighteenth 
^ Century Boston. Another tablet commemorates the fact that the 
4 spire is **due to the bounty of Honduras Merchants," of whom 
^ one Ukes to think as sitting in **The Bay Pew," now inscribed, 
^ **This Pew for the use of the Gentlemen of the Bay of Hondu- 
^ ras, " and dropping doubloons and pieces of eight into the contri- 
bution plates. 11 
In Christ Church, moreover, is to be found one of the rare copies 1 
of the *♦ Vinegar Bible," so called from the immortal misprint 
which substituted for **The Parable of the Vineyard," **The 
Parable of the Vinegar." 



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OR some time after the Revolution King's Chapel was com- 
monly called the **Stone Chapel." There is now no dispo- 
sition to gulp at the word **King's." Indeed, the Colonial flavor 
of the Chapel and its graveyard, a strong Church of England flavor, 
contributes the chief element of interest to this landmark. Within its 
walls or in the Chapel graveyard the imagination may easily restore 
to life the **subjects" of Smibert and Copley. A homelier picture 
is to be found in ** The Recollections of Samuel Breck" — an old 
Bostonian turned Philadelphian. The story has to do with the build- 
ing of the present church, begun in 1 749, and with an Irish la- 
borer's quickness of wit and action. 

**The workmen," wrote Breck, **had agreed among them- 
selves when roofing the church, that on the signal being made to 
leave off work at dinner-time the last man down should treat the 
others to drink. A little, tight-built, active Irishman was always 
foremost in getting downstairs, and daily boasted that they never 
had caught him and never should. 
**Upon this a scheme was laid to make him treat. His business 
^ was to carry up slates for the roof ; and one day, when he was 

^ at the far end of the building, the bell was rung a few minutes 

earlier than usual. The workmen, who were all in the secret, 
^ rushed to the tower and then to the stah-s, when Patrick looked 

^ round and instantly guessed their intention. But determined not 

^ to be last, he squatted down on a loose piece of slate and fear- 

^ lessly slid off the roof into the burying-place, where he happened 

^ to light; with the slate under him, in a sitting position, between 

1 two gravestones, and wholly uninjured. 

I "He sprang upon his feet and ran to the church door, where 

he met the conspirators at the foot of the stairs and triumphantly 
claimed his treat as usual." 

In the days that have come this early aviator and his triumph 
provide refreshing thoughts. 



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AN EARLY process of Americanization was the changing or 
the name of Apollos Rivoire, a French Huguenot refugee in 
Boston, to Paul Revere. His new name was handed on to his son, 
and later became a household word through the agency of a single 
poem. If the older Paul was buried without a funeral sermon on 
the text, **Who then is Paul, and who is Apollos?" the golden 
opportunity of a Puritan minister was carelessly lost. 

The younger Paul Revere did many notable things, mounted 
and afoot, besides making his **midnight ride." As a citizen of the 
North End, he exerted a strong personal influence. He was a re- 
markable artizan, and, by token of his best products in silverware, 
an artist. He made all manner of things, from the copper fastenings 
of the Constitution to artificial teeth. 

The North Square house in which he lived was reclaimed and 
restored not many years ago by a private association formed for the 
purpose. With this house one characteristic incident in the life ot 
Paul Revere may be closely associated. 

The ** Boston Massacre" occurred March 5, 1770. The first 
anniversary of the event was celebrated with great solemnity in 
Boston. Bells were tolled from noon to one o'clock, and at night 
from nine to ten; a public oration was delivered — and Paul Revere 
on his own account made a telling commemoration of the local 
tragedy. This was the designing and execution of three transpar- 
encies, displayed on the night of the anniversary in the upper win- 
dows of his house. Two of them represented scenes of the **Mas- 
sacre," the third a female figure of America, with her foot on the 
head of a fallen Grenadier. **The spectators," in the words of a 
contemporaneous description, **were struck with solemn silence 
and their countenances were covered with a melancholy glow." 

Here is a scene on which the imaginative visitor to the Paul 
Revere House may exercise his imagination with little difficulty 
and with large results in the visualizing of an impressive spectacle. 



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THE Hon and unicorn on the Old State House, at the head 
of State Street, are animals of a third generation later than 
those which first occupied this position. At about the same time 
that King Street became State Street the original animals were de- 
stroyed by the crowd that made a bonfire, down the street, of all the 
emblems of royalty it could collect, after hearing the Declaration of 
Independence read, July 1 8, 1 776, from the balcony of the State 
House, then called the Town House. 

From this balcony the death of George II and the accession of 
George III had been proclaimed. Washington stood on it when he 
received a public ovation and reviewed a great procession in 1789. 
Picturesque associations in great number cluster about the building, 
without and within. 

Like those other fabulous creatures of the British Isles, the snakes 
of Ireland, the lion and the unicorn were long non-existent. It was 
not till 1882, when the Old State House was rescued from the low 
estate into which it had fallen as a nucleus of business offices, that 
a restoration of the building was undertaken, and a new lion and 
unicorn were substituted for the architectural scrolls which were 
to be seen in their places for the better part of the century. This 
particular point of restoration became a matter of zealous local con- 
troversy. It should not be forgotten that the gilded eagle on the 
western end of the building was perched there to placate certain 
patriots. 

The present lion and unicorn are of even later date than 1882. 
The creatures then erected were carved of wood, and began, before 
many years had passed, to show signs ot decay. They were ac- 
cordingly replaced, soon after 1900, by the present figures, made 
of copper. And their wooden predecessors ? They beautify the 



. lawn of an American citizen, of Armenian descent and name, 

in the pleasant suburb of Chestnut Hill. So deals the new de- 
mocracy with the symbols of a system that has passed. 



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HERE are two neighboring buildings on Cambridge Street, -^ 

^ in the West End of Boston, which have been turned to good i, 
purposes never imagined when the buildings were new. They are i 

the West End Branch of the Boston Public Library, formerly the ^ 

West Church, on one corner of Lynde Street, and the Headquar- ^ 

ters of the Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities, ♦ 

formerly the Harrison Gray Otis House, on the other corner. ♦ 

The Otis house was built in 1 795, while the earlier West Church, 
built in 1737, was still standing. Before 1806, when the present 
West Church building was erected, Otis had moved on to the new 
house, now 8 5 Mount Vernon Street, which Bulfinch designed 
for him. A few years later he built what has long been called the 
Austin house, at 45 Beacon Street, and still later erected his country- 
seat of Oakley, now the Oakley Country Club. These four houses, 
all surviving a century, are a remarkable monument to one occupant. 
The West Church boasted a distinguished line of ministers, in- 
cluding the father of James Russell Lowell. A sermon preached in 
1750 by one of them, the Rev. Jonathan May hew, indignantly 
repudiating King Charles I as ** Saint and Martyr," has often J 

been called *'the morning gun of the Revolution." In the Pref- ^ 

ace to this sermon he wrote: L 

* * People have no security against bein g unmercifully priest-ridden y T 

but by keeping all imperious BISHOPS and other CLERGYMEN 1^ 
who love to *lord it over God's heritage' from getting their foot 
into the stirrup at all. Let them be once fairly mounted, and their ^ 

* beasts, the laity,' may prance and flounce about to no purpose: ^ 

and they will at length be so jaded and hack' d by these reverend J 

jockies, that they will not even have spirits enough to complain J 

that their backs are galled; or, like Balaam's ass, to * rebuke the J 

madness of the prophet.' " t u "^ 

The irony of it is that in 1852 Mayhew's grandson, Jonathan ^ 

Mayhew Wainwright, was consecrated Bishop in New York. ^ 



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^HE century is the most convenient yard-stick for the measur- 
ing of American antiquities. In Boston, once so overwhelm- 
ingly Puritan, it is not a little surprising to find a Roman Catholic 
chapel and cemetery more than a hundred years old, and, at the 
same time, to discover in the heart of South Boston a spot of beauty 
and suggestion quite without parallel in the rest of the city. Such 
a spot is St. Augustine's. Any Bostonian with a trace of the '*show- 
man's instinct," when once he has seen it himself, will want to es- 
cort the visiting sight-seer to this romantic little «*God's acre" in the 
unromantic surroundings of Dorchester, Tudor, and Sixth Streets. 
The land for the cemetery was acquired and the chapel built in 
1818, under the auspices of the saintly Cheverus, the first Roman 
Catholic Bishop of Boston, the friend of the best men of all faiths 
in the Boston of his day, extending fi-om 1796 to 1823. 

To Bishop Cheverus the little chapel of brick, with its long, 
pointed Gothic windows of plain glass, its roof of generous slates, 
its walls now thickly verdured, was primarily the resting-place for 
J the body of his fi-iend. Father Mantignon, a French priest at whose 

^ invitation he himself had come to Boston. Mantignon' s memory 

^ is honored in a mural tablet. Under the floor of the chapel a score 

^ of other priests have since been buried, each commemorated with 

^ a large stone inscribed with the identic, impartial words, '* Of your 

^ charity pray for the repose of the soul of" thus and so, beneath 

^ whose name the letters '* R. I. P." are cut. 

^ The graveyard without, bounded by four streets, contains rows 

^ of English elms such as the lover of trees may well go far to see. 

^ The graves beneath them, marked with tombstones of varying 

^ beauty, yet richly mellowing beneath the touch of time, are so 

1 thickly clustered that the original purpose of the cemetery seems 

: completely fulfilled. The names of the dead and the places of their 

1 birth speak eloquently of the Ireland from which the tide of emi- 

gratiqn to Boston set in after the time of Mantignon and Cheverus. 



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